Chapter 19
The next day, Natalie, Remus, Lily, James, Genevieve, Alice, Frank, Peter and Sarah had received their invitations to Bo and Sirius' wedding. Bo wrote a little note to the girls to meet her today at Diagon Alley at 'Madam Hunklefort's Bridal Shop' at 2 o'clock.
Meeting up with the girls, Bo was the first to enter the bridal shop. "Oh wow, I love the store already!" Alice gushed.
"It's new, right?" Sarah addressed Madam Hunklefort.
The elder woman nodded "Our grand opening was two days ago."
Moving on, the girls were walking in the store, looking for dresses. Bo found the perfect dress for her: a white, strapless, knee-length dress, which was tight at the chest area, but under it, the dress was flowing. It had a light pink satin ribbon on the waist and behind the dress was a bow. She told Natalie that she was going to try it on.
After several minutes, Lily looked around her to see Bo missing. "Where is she?" She asked the girls. Some of them shook their heads of shrugged, but Natalie told her that she told her that she was trying on a dress. The girls were surprised and ran to the fitting rooms and found Bo's feet peeping out from one of the fitting rooms.
"Well, come on, Mrs. Black!" Genevieve shrieked. Bo asked for help with the zipper. Natalie went inside and zipped her dress. Natalie and Bo pulled out the curtains to show the girls the dress.
"Oh wow, Bo! You look heavenly!" Alice clapped her hands ecstatically.
"You're beautiful!" Lily complimented her.
"You're going to knock him dead!" Genevieve winked. Natalie and Sarah gave her their thumbs up.
"I'm taking this dress. Can someone please find me matching shoes?" Sarah nodded and went to find her shoes.
"Lily? Please?" Bo turned around and pointed at the zipper. Lily nodded and unzipped the dress.
Genevieve took this chance that Bo was alone and asked her "Do you mind if I bring Amos to the wedding?"
Bo looked at her funny "Are you really asking me this?"
Genevieve gave a quick nod.
"Of course you can bring him, you daft cow!" Genevieve gave her a playful slap on Bo's forearm.
"Is everything alright? With you? With him?" Bo asked her.
Genevieve smiled "Couldn't be better!" They shared a hug and Bo pulled the curtain behind her.
Bo found matching shoes for her dress and was waiting for the others to try on dresses. Bo wanted them have dresses with different colors. Lily found an ankle-length, satin, apple green dress, with a large bow on the top area. Alice found a floor length, one shoulder periwinkle dress. Sarah found a yellow ankle length dress with a black belt in the middle. Genevieve bought a frilly, short blood red dress. And finally, Natalie bought a fuchsia pink, one shoulder floor- length dress. They bought matching shoes, and wore grins on their faces as they walked out from the shop to a café nearby.
"Well, this won't be the first wedding in our gang." Sarah said while smirking at Alice, who flushed.
"Did you talk about a date?" Genevieve asked Alice.
Alice shook her head "Not yet, but we need to." There was a slight pause after that.
"Who's the maid of honor, Bo?" Sarah asked. Bo was in a sticky situation; they were all very good friends of hers, but like in any group, there are friends who are closer and less. She knew who will be her maid of honor.
"Lily." Bo announced. Lily, who took this by surprise, raised her eyebrows. However, the girls weren't surprised, but weren't hurt.
Bo quickly added "But you will be my bridesmaids! You'll be at my side through the whole day." Bo grinned at the others. They deep down were comforted; they truly wanted to be at Bo's side. They mirrored her grin.
"I forgot to tell you, I'm having a boy!" Bo shrieked.
Genevieve yelled "I knew it!" and told Sarah to pay her seven Galleons. Alice cheered, Lily smiled and Natalie called out "A little Padfoot!" When Natalie said this, Lily laughed out loud. Bo looked at her confused, and Lily told her about her conversation with James.
"No, not troublemakers at all!" Bo said sarcastically and laughed along with her.
Bo came home after a great afternoon with her friends. She called out to Sirius, but with no answer. She put her bags on one of the sofas and went to pour herself a glass of juice. When she returned to the living room, she saw a black dog sniffing the bags and trying to peek.
"Sirius! No!" Bo exclaimed sternly. The dog looked at her and whimpered.
"Come on, Sirius. It's bad luck to look." The dog transformed to her fiancé. A shirtless Sirius appeared and kissed her.
"Oh, alright, I won't look-" He was cut off by a look from her.
"I promise!" He finished. She smiled and kissed him.
James, Remus, Peter and Frank met up at Remus's apartment and behind Sirius' back to in order to plan his bachelor party. Remus came up with the location "How about 'The Hog's Head'?" The other nodded and agreed with him.
"Yeah, I know the owner of the place; I can talk to him and convince him to close the pub for a night." Frank offered.
James clapped his shoulder "That's great, Frank!"
Remus nodded "Do owl him."
Frank nodded and asked Remus where he could find a piece of parchment and a feather. He told him where and that a bottle of ink was in the same place. Frank started writing to the owner.
Frank stopped for a moment and asked them "We didn't figure out when we will have the party."
"Saturday night? It's better than Sunday because Sirius would probably want to do any final errands before the wedding." James replied.
Remus, who looked at Peter, asked "What do you think, Wormtail?" Peter recently had parted away from his friends and Remus started to notice this, but said nothing to no one.
Peter squeaked "I think Saturday's good."
Changing the subject, James asked his friends "How about jobs, then?"
"I didn't find anything so far, but I'm planning on going to Diagon Alley and give 'Flourish and Blotts' my résumé." Remus replied. Frank rolled up the letter and walked over to the window and murmured the owner's name to the owl and watched it fly.
He sat down with his friend and said "Remus, that's a wonderful idea. Good luck with that!" Remus smiled at him and asked them about their jobs.
"Well, I found a job at a gardening shop in London. It's brilliant! I've seen Professor Sprout on a few occasions." Frank shared. James, who was rather quiet, was worrying the others.
"What's wrong?" Peter asked James.
"I've been thinking about this a lot, but I'll just spit it out. I want to ask Lily to marry me." Frank choked on his pumpkin juice and coughed.
"You do? That's great!" Frank said. "Why are you pondering about it?" Remus asked.
"I don't know if she wants to get married." James confessed.
Frank chuckled "You'll never know till you ask. But I know she does want to marry you."
James raised his eyebrow and asked "How do you know?"
"Well, she stood up for you at her parent's house. She told her sister that she loves you no matter what, and that is saying something." Remus replied.
James thought about what Remus said and nodded "You're right. Lily did stand up for me. She's the woman of my dreams, for Merlin's sake! I'm going to ask her." James grinned. The others cheered for him.
A few days had gone by, and it was Saturday evening. The boys tricked Sirius and told him that they bought tickets for a Quidditch match. "But first, let's have a drink at the 'Hog's Head'!" Remus ushered him.
"The match is enough, lads!" Sirius persisted.
James shook his head "No, mate. Not every day your best friend is getting married!" Sirius gave up and apparated with them to the pub.
Arriving at the pub, Sirius opened the door to reveal his fellow school friends cheering for him. Above them, he saw a sign 'Congrats, Sirius!' and grinned at everyone. They entered the pub with big cheers and applause. There was a huge table and Sirius sat down at the head of it. Drinks and snacks were coming in a fast pace and goblets were refilled instantly. Most of the men were drunk by the end of the party.
"Lads, I want to thank you all for coming, and I wish you a happy life like mine!" Sirius slurred as he raised his goblet. The others copied him and raised their goblets. They had a toast.
"Another toast: To James, Remus, Frank and Peter, who arranged this party behind my back. I thank you for this glorious bachelor party!" They had another toast.
Remus, who was drunk but stable, proposed a toast to Sirius "To Sirius, who is ending his bachelor life, and beginning a new life with Bo. We wish you all the best. To Sirius!"
"To Sirius!" the others called out and drank another sip from their drinks.
Meanwhile, the girls were having fun at 'Lady Hammersmith's Spa Palace'. They were getting massages, pedicures, manicures and many other treatments.
"This is awesome, girls! Thanks!" Bo called out to them as she was getting her pedicure.
"I haven't been to a spa before." Natalie confessed.
"Well of course you haven't silly. Muggles do it all the time and we simply took the idea from them." Sarah laughed at her. Natalie blushed and looked at Lily for affirmation. Lily nodded at her. In the end, after minutes of bickering, they didn't let Bo pay for anything.
After enjoying themselves at the spa, they sat down at a café and started to congratulate Bo.
"You're one of the greatest people I've ever met, and I love you." Sarah kissed Bo's cheek.
"We wish you and Sirius the best!" Genevieve hugged Bo.
"Have you thought about a name for the baby?" Lily asked Bo.
"No, actually, I haven't. Do you have any ideas?" Bo addressed the girls.
"How about 'John'?" Natalie suggested.
Bo half smiled at her and shook her head "That's Remus's middle name."
"Alright, how about 'Greg'?" Alice suggested. Bo scrunched up her nose in disgust and shook her head.
"I'll find one, I still have time." She said while looking down at her abdomen and caressing it.
"What does it feel like, being pregnant?" Genevieve asked her.
Bo replied "It isn't easy. I feel heavier, slower and more tired than ever. But it's great, carrying your baby, feeling it move inside you." The girls beamed at her.
"To Bo!" Sarah raised her glass for a toast, and the others complied "To Bo!"
Their glasses clanged together and Bo thought to herself 'In 2 days, I'll be a married woman. A lucky woman with a loving man by her side, and friends I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.'